Lomogram for Windows Phone 8

Aside from the usual work-related stuff like email, texting and Twitter, the number one thing I do on my phone (today it’s a yellow Lumia 920) is take photos. Photos on the Lumia 920 look amazing – even the ones taken in less-than-ideal conditions – thanks to that killer PureView camera, but sometimes they still need a little something extra. That’s where Lomogram, my favorite Windows Phone 8 photo editing app, comes in.

Lomogram is one of many “vignetting” apps that you can find in the Windows Phone Store, but it’s my most used due to its simple-yet-beautiful design, straightforward usability, and deep social integration that lets you share edited photos straight to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more.

Most impressive is the massive library of effects. There are 42 filters (all with quirky first-name labels like “Edward” and “Madison”), 72 lighting effects and 49 border and papers options. Put them alongside more traditional editing tools like crop and brightness/hue/saturation adjustment, and you’re presented with almost limitless options

Apps like this aren’t something I use all the time, but in certain situations they’re exactly the right way to give a photo a bit more character. Take, for example, this photo I shot on Monday while location scouting in LA.

Yes, that’s the club marquee at LA’s famous Echo Plex. And yes, it says The Rolling Stones. We found out when we showed up at the venue that on Saturday the Stones played a secret, unannounced warm-up show for their summer tour. Tickets were $20 at the door with no pre-sales; if you happened to be lucky enough to walk past, you got to see the show of a lifetime.

I missed the show but still grabbed a pretty awesome shot. And after a quick run through Lomogram – a quick crop, vintage-y filter and I-just-discovered-this-photo-in-my-dad’s-old-shoebox paper choice, I have a photo that could have been as easily taken on Kodachrome in 1970 as it was in 2013 on a Nokia Lumia 920.

Lomogram is free to download in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Get it here.

(NOTE: If you’re looking for a more traditional photo editor, I recommend the excellent Fotor for both Windows Phone and Windows 8.)